Some remarks at the beginning...
• The second major source of Western civilization is
ancient Greece.
• The great achievements of the Greeks lay in the
development of political, philosophical and scientific
thought.
• The Greeks broke with the myth-making orientation
of the Near East and created the rational outlook that
is a distinctive feature of Western civilization.
• They saw human beings as having a capacity for
rational thought, a need for freedom, and a worth as
single individuals.